Pakistan said this evening it has arrested a senior al Qaeda figure wanted for the 1998 bombings of two US embassies in Africa that killed hundreds of people.
Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat identified the man as Ahmed Khalfan Ghailini and said he was a Tanzanian national wanted for the synchronised bombings that killed more than 200 people at the US embassy in Kenya and 11 at the embassy in Tanzania.
"He carried head money of $25 million," Mr Hayat said. He said Ghailani was one of about a dozen people arrested on Tuesday when security forces raided a suspected militant hideout in the city of Gujarat, about 175 km (110 miles) southeast of the capital Islamabad.
Ghailani is on the FBI's "Most Wanted Terrorists" list for his alleged role in the 1998 bombings, which also said it was "offering a reward of up to $25 million for information leading directly to the apprehenshion or conviction of Ahmed Ghailani".
Ghailani was among seven people about whom the US said in May it was seeking information amid fears of a possible attack in the near future.
A Pakistani official said on Tuesday that Pakistani security forces were holding three Africans, including a Tanzanian, suspected of being militants after a shootout last week.
Another said the suspects had been trying to flee Pakistan along with their families, using fake documents, after living in neighbouring Afghanistan.
Pakistan, a key ally in the US-led "war on terror", has arrested hundreds of al Qaeda members since the September 11th, 2001 attacks on the United States. Several senior al Qaeda figures have been handed over to Washington.